In recent years, a technique has been proposed that efficiently produces a monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbon having 6 to 8 carbon atoms which can be used as a high octane gasoline base material or a petrochemical feedstock and has a high added value (for example, benzene, toluene, or coarse xylene; hereinafter, these will be collectively referred to as “BTX”) from a feedstock containing a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon such as light cycle oil (hereinafter, abbreviated as “LCO”) which is a cracked light oil produced in a fluid catalytic cracking (hereinafter, abbreviated as “FCC”) apparatus which has so far been used mainly as a light oil or heavy oil-oriented fuel base material.
Specifically, in such a production technique (production method), a feedstock containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon is contacted with a catalyst for producing monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, so as to subject the feedstock to cracking and reforming, thereby efficiently producing BTX. In addition, as an application of the method for producing BTX from a feedstock containing a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, another method has been proposed for producing an aromatic hydrocarbon in which BTX is produced from a thermally-cracked heavy oil obtained from an apparatus for producing ethylene (for example, refer to PTL 1).
Both in the technique that produces BTX from LCO and in the technique that produces a BTX fraction from a thermally-cracked heavy oil obtained from an apparatus for producing ethylene as well, there is a desire for decreasing the production cost of BTX. Therefore, there have been demands for reducing the construction costs and operating costs of the apparatus for practicing the above technique.
For reducing the construction costs and operating costs of the apparatus, for example, it can be considered to change the cracking and reforming reaction apparatus that cracks and reforms the feedstock using a catalyst for producing monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbon with a fixed-bed reactor that has a simple configuration.